Like a lot of outdoors men I have a very tough time keeping my knife sharp.  I’m real bad about knife abuse and that doesn’t bode well for a sharp knife.  So, to help us all out I went looking for the best video I could find to help us learn how to sharpen our knives and to keep them sharp while afield.

For me, sitting around the campfire is a good time to take the old knife out and give it a good strapping to fine tune that edge.  But, I don’t always do it while sitting around the fire and so I find myself having to do something with the knife before I can take care of the deer I just shot.  The information in this video just might lend itself handy someday and I hope it helps you as well.

When all else fails I just call on my knife professional friend Magpie to do the sharpening for me!

Bears Butt

June 29, 2012

I’m always interested in mule deer bucks and I just love to look at pictures of them.  Pictures are pretty much how I get to see the really big boys anyway.  When out hunting I don’t usually get far enough off the road to be where they are and if I do get a look at one it is usually as it is running over the crest of a hill.

There is a lot of talk today about how Utah can manage our deer herds and get the buck to doe ratio up so that we might all be able to take a “keeper” type buck.  Frankly I could care less about a set of racks on the wall, I have plenty, even spikes are trophies to me.  I’ll shoot the first legal buck I see normally.

In my search for muley antler growth I came across a very interesting article written by a man named Charles Kay.  I know nothing about his back ground as I did not investigate that.  However, you might be interested in the article he wrote and is published on “wildlifeforidaho.com”  A very interesting read and the author writes as if he knows what he is talking about.

It at least makes me think about how Utah is going about things, good or bad.

The last picture in the article looks just like a big bruiser of a buck that could easily be found in the Crawford Mountains this fall…No Grimace, Baby Boy, would either of you take a shot at this one?

http://www.idahoforwildlife.com/Charles%20Kay/73-How%20to%20grow%20trophy%20mule%20deer.pdf

Bears Butt

June 28, 2012

I thought it about time for you all (ya’ll) to see this:

http://www.myspace.com/video/justin/jeff-foxworthy-and-alan-jackson-redneck-games/35395223

Bears Butt

June 27, 2012

Have you ever wondered how the pioneers doctored themselves?  When you think about it there weren’t a whole lot of doctors around back then, so they had to pretty much rely on what they knew, thought they knew or just plain figured out on their own.  Maybe something their father, mother or grandparents told them once.

Let’s see, didn’t grandma tell me that for a large cut on the head I need to wrap little Johnny’s wound with grape leaves and smack him on the butt a few times?

Where would I get grape leaves?

In the mean time little Johnny just might die.  So they would react the best they knew how and most of the time logic would win out and little Johnny would come out a winner.  Midwifes were just common folks who may have already gone through a child birth themselves and so instantly became a very knowledgeable person who could help another woman give birth.  They often times were a little older in the community and with age comes knowledge about all things medical.  That made them the go to person for help when people got sick.

So, what would you do if you were called upon in the middle of the night.  Here is a person desperately in need of help.  They are down, shivering and have a bad cough.  We must make them sweat and break the fever.  Go git me that jar in the back of the cupboard.  I’ll pour him a cup of this and he will begin to sweat almost immediately.  He will be better when the sun comes up.

Well, what is in that magic concoction in the jar at the back of the cupboard?

I found this on a website called “Pioneers West.com”  and on that site there is a part for medicine.  I emailed the owner of the site for permission to use items from his site and he was very gracious to allow me to use it.

For SWEATING Take a lump of cow excrement as large as a hen egg from a cowpie dropped in the month of May. Wrap it in a rag and put it in a pitcher with a little sage, horsemint and other sweating herbs. This will produce a half-gallon of strong tea, but not so strong as to make the patient sick. Drink plenty to cause sweating.

I think that sometimes perhaps the cure is worse than the ailment.

Bears Butt

June 26, 2012

National Log Cabin Day and National Catfish Day.

Log cabin day started back east in Michigan to celebrate the home of the era way back when.  No glass of screen on the windows, just openings.  Most did have a door however.  So a burglar could just enter through the window rather than open the door, however the shotgun over the fireplace would probably meet him post hast.

My research shows quite a lot of celebrations that surround National Log Cabin day.  Most of the celebrations were held over the weekend with craft shows, articles and plays having log cabins as the theme and of course lots of food that was common in the log cabin days.  Have you ever heard of  “hard tack”?  And did you know it is nothing more than flour and water mixed together, spread out and cut into circles about 3 inches across and then baked until it’s hard enough to use as a hockey puck?  Here you go little Johnny, I know it’s only 7 a.m., but chew on this until supper is done.

What we havin fer supper ma?  We will be having “Pease Porridge” son, now git along.

I’ve often wondered what Pease Porridge was and now I know, so I’ll share it with you.  Start with peas and mash them little suckers up until they are not identifiable as peas anymore.  Now mix in a couple of eggs, some butter and salt and pepper and mix that all up.  In your mind can you see the green mucky looking mess in the bowl?  Now transfer that mess into a dish that can stand to get real hot and also will fit inside your dutch oven.  You are going to heat that bowl up in a dutch oven that has about 1/2 inch of water in it.  Put the lid on the dutch oven and heat that baby up until the water boils and steams.  They say about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Of course the cooks back in the day didn’t have thermometers, but they were pretty dang good at figuring it was just the right amount of heat to get the job done.  After all, little Johnny is just about done with his hard tack biscuit and he will be hollerin fer food.

So when this mix is all cooked it will be like the consistency of rubbery mush.  If there is any left after eating supper, it can be sliced and fried for breakfast the next morning.  As for breakfast you would want to cook up some sort of meat like bacon or sausage to go with the fried green stuff.  I think I’ll just eat the meat and let little Johnny have my fried green stuff.  And it sure makes me NOT wonder about the little saying “Pease Porridge hot, pease porridge cold, pease porridge in the pot nine days old”.  I guess after nine days of nobody wanting to eat it you would toss it out.

Well, so much for log cabin days.  I think National Catfish Day sounds a whole lot more fun than kicking around a hockey puck and trying to gag down some pease porridge.

Enjoy your hot and windy June 25, 2012!

Bears Butt

Utah will begin their coyote control payment program on July 1, 2012 and of course with any program ran by the state there are stinking rules.  Here is the site that tells you of the rules.

You will have to register to play and also take an online course.

http://wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/predator_program_fact_sheet.pdf

$50 is more than a properly handled coyote fur will get you from a fur buyer and so it really is a good way to make up for some of your expenses to bag a coyote or two.

Bears Butt

June 24, 2012

We made it through day one of a two day neighborhood garage sale!  4 families all on the same side of the street.  We had lots of cars, vans and trucks parked up and down the street.  At first it reminded me of a small carnival but after the initial blast of customers things settled into more of a calm sale.  Folks would come in  small groups.  Then a lull and then another group.  Sort of strange, but that was the way it went.

We unloaded a lot of good stuff that we wanted to get rid of and it’s always surprising what people are looking for.  Our last customer was looking for a special type of salt shaker.  Another guy a broom.  One lady bought 4 or 5 old mugs.  An antique guy was here but we didn’t have anything he wanted.  And a guy who likes metal signs bought an 1936 Utah license plate that was quite rusty and had 22 caliber holes in it. And several guys wanted fishing gear and guns.   My deal of the day was selling my Gerber Biter for $10!  And that guy was a way happy guy.  His wife was too and she gave me the cash and said she was going to put it in her purse as she wanted it worse than he did.  I last saw him with it.

Tomorrow is the end and we have some very special stuff to put out for it.   A pellet gun and a set of tire chains!  What will be the desired items people will be looking for tomorrow?  That’s anyone’s guess!

Passed yard sales have seen people looking for buttons, sewing stuff, curios etc.  Whatever they want if they hit enough of the yard sales around they will find what they are looking for.

Bears Butt

June 22, 2012

Officially over!

A great day but much different than yesterday.  Maybe there is something about what I read that Friday is a better day than Saturday to have a yard sale.  This was the first time trying it for us.

As for take…well…we were trying to get rid of stuff and so we didn’t charge too much for anything and actually gave some things away for nothing.  A hardy thanks to the folks that took those things.  It was another fun day of meeting and talking to people, which is why I like these things anyway.

We keep track of what we sell and how much we got for it etc., and we had almost 2 full pages of stuff that is gone!  GONE!  What I mean is it is GONE!  We have a smallish pile that will go to good will on Monday and two small boxes of stuff that went back into the basement (seed for the next yard sale, does it ever end?)  And we have some “investment money” in our pockets.  Anyone have any hot leads?

Boy was it hot today.  I think we could have made more money selling sodas or water.

It was fun!  Thanks Magpie for taking all that muzzy stuff.  I hope you can make your own rifle from the parts and also make some extra on the side selling to others in need!  You helped me out big time!

Bears Butt

P.M. same day as this post started